Kelly Bennett's Blog, page 62

Poetry Challenge #84: To Be or Not To Bee

I’m no Hamlet—never played one, don’t live in one—But . . .  I do know the beginning of Prince Hamlet’s Act 3, Scene 1 Soliloquy in To Be or Not to Be. And now, if you didn’t, you do too. Thus primed, prompt on fair Prince/ess:

Poetry Challenge #84 To Be or Not to Bee  “The verb "to be" is one of the shortest and most important—yet oddest— verbs  in the English language. It is an  irregular verb ; indeed, it is the only verb in English that completely changes form in every tense. The verb "to be" i...

Poetry Challenge #83-Pick A Pet

Which animals make the best pets? Dogs? Cats? Lizards? . . . Rocks?

. . . If you ask me the answer is Goldfish! Definitely Goldfish! (But it’s not up to me . . . )

Poetry Challenge #83 Pick A Pet List 5 or 10 or as many as you can in one minute. Which animals make the worst pets? List for another minute. What other animals can you think of? Time yourself one more minute.  Write a list poem using animals from your lists. Write three lines with 7 syllables on each line and finish the poem with...

Poetry Challenge #82-Diamond in the Rough

 In the same way diamonds—the “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” gems/rocks/stones— come in many shapes, colors and sizes, diamante poems can be about anything. Poetry Challenge #83 Diamond In the Rough A Diamante is a diamond-shaped poem, simple as that. Diamante poems begin with a one word or syllable line. Each subsequent line grows longer by one than the previous line. The longest line is the mid-point of the poem. From there, the lines decrease by one until reaching the last one word lin...

Poetry Challenge #81 Don't Bother Checking Twice

Santa still snoozing at some sunny warm spa, recovering after the busy holiday season. So, while he’s otherwise occupied, no need to bother about checking twice—unless it’s to be sure you have ink/lead in your writing implement of choice—thus clearing the way for this prompt:

Poetry Challenge #81 Make a List Although at first glance you might not notice, soooo many poems are list poems: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I Love Thee”, Billy Collins’ “Bread and Knife,” Shel Silverstein’s “Eig...

Poetry Challenge #80-Scribble Something

Really, would the tike in this pic do a naughty thing like that?

My love of writing can be traced back to when I was two-ish. As the story goes, I used my mom’s black mascara and lipstick to write on the neighbor's car! (And maybe blamed it on my brother… although he says I blamed it on him.) Nevertheless, a scribble is a scribble, and so we celebrate:

Poetry Challenge #80 Scribble Something In honor of National Scribble Day* celebrated every March 27th,  scratch around for something colorful t...

Poetry Challenge #78-Little Bit of Bloomin' Luck

“With a little bit of Bloomin’ Luck!” Alfred P. Doolittle sings in My Fair Lady. I know exactly how he feels! Who doesn’t wish for a little bit more luck—bloomin’ or otherwise. That’s what makes Saint Patrick’s Day, one of my favorite holidays. Four leaf clovers, horseshoes, pots-of-gold, lepraucauns, jigs, lucky charms and wearing green, it’s all about conjuring up luck and having fun while you’re at it. St. Patrick’s Day is this Sunday, March 17th, let’s celebrate by writing some lucky poem...

Poetry Challenge #77-Heave-Ho! Chant-She-Blows!

Sing-Alongs are always challenging—and sometimes embarrassing—even for me. (And those of you who know me, know I love to sing—badly.) The worst is when someone sticks a microphone in my face and I don’t know the words. That’s when I resort to the trusty mumble-mumble-murmer-murmer— la-di-dah-daaaaaaaa

My Best Friend’s Wedding Classic!

Songwriters who like audiences who sing-along— pirate ship captives & those wanting tips, for example—make singing along easier by writing song with repeated...

Poetry Prompt #76 Thirsty Thursday

Maybe because it’s Thursday.

Maybe because I’m thirsty.

Maybe because water isn’t cutting it, I recollected a play called The Drunkard by William Henry Smith, which brought to mind the song cowboy song Cool, Clear Water, you know the one: “Don’t you listen to him Dan/He’s a devil not a man/and he spreads the burning sand with water/Cool, clear, water….” Thus today’s 7-Minute Poetry Challenge.

Poetry Prompt #76 Thirsty Thursday Draw inspiration from the title, Thirsty Thursday, write a poem abo...

Poetry Challenge #75-Anagram

Have you played a game where you’re given some letters and you have to see how many words you can make out of them? Bananagram and Scrabble are two family favorites. For today’s prompt, let’s start there and push it further.

Poetry Challenge #75 Anagram Poetry For today’s poem, begin with a title. Then, create a poem from words you can make by rearranging the letters in the title. You might want to spend a few minutes listing words ala an anagram game before you start writing. You can come up...

Poetry Challenge #74-Where I'm From

A few weeks ago, at the Kindling Words gathering author VCFA Faculty Uma Krishnaswami turned me onto the I Am From Project , celebrating our unique voices through poetry (my summation of the project, not the official word.). The project’s goal is “to create a national river of voices, reminding America that diversity is our origin and our strength.” Uma shared a poem and invited us to join it. I’m inviting you to do the same.

Poetry Challenge #74 The Stuff of Me Write a poem describing where yo...